Now and again, Hakeem Olajuwon’s name eventually gets thrown out there. Heck, even Bill Self’s made the comparison. In many ways, of course, the similarities between the two 7-footers are hard to ignore; Olajuwon, like Embiid, grew up playing soccer in Africa before turning his focus to basketball.

Even when talking about Embiid’s incredible upside — which was on full display in his 18-point, 6-rebound, 4-block effort in Kansas’ 80-63 victory over New Mexico on Saturday night — comparisons to a Hall of Famer aren’t exactly fair.

So there Embiid sat, his voice soft and slightly raspy as he spoke about being more aggressive after sitting on the bench with two first-half fouls.

Then the ‘Dream Shake’ came up. Olajuwon’s signature move, one Embiid has watched countless times on tape. And Kansas’ freshman couldn’t keep a broad smile from sweeping across his face.

He had, after all, just pulled off the Dream Shake himself.

“We see him do it every day in practice,” a grinning Wayne Selden said. “I’m glad he finally brought it to the game.”

Was it Embiid’s favorite play? (As if there was any doubt.)

“Um,” he said, still beaming. “Yeah. Definitely.”

The play almost was doomed from the start, with Selden putting a little too much air under a lob to Embiid on a Jayhawks’ fast break.

Embiid used his massive wingspan and quick reflexes to save the ball from going out of bounds, then took two big bounces toward the front of the basket with UNM center Alex Kirk draped on his back.

With his back to the basket, Embiid faked left — leaving Kirk confused and stuck in quicksand — before pirouetting toward the baseline, dipping under the rim and finishing with his right hand.

“People haven’t seen in a game what he can do,” Self said. “We’ve seen glimpses, but we haven’t seen the offensive repertoire where he can score over both shoulders with both hands or step out and shoot it. So that was nice to see.”

“That’s the best I’ve seen him play,” offered Lobos coach Craig Neal. “And I’ve watched all the tapes, offensively, this year.”

Self was just as impressed with the other elements of Embiid’s game: the three steals, the four blocks, the willingness to protect the rim and defend against the Lobos’ two senior forwards.

Early foul trouble, though, was again an issue for Embiid. He picked up his first foul 19 seconds into the game hedging a ball screen on the perimeter and then was whistled for going over the back at the 10:50 mark.

Overall, Embiid played only seven minutes and scored two points in the half.

“He needs to play 30 minutes a game; he’s got to,” Self said. “But he can’t if he makes boneheaded plays, and that (first foul) was a boneheaded play. He’s going to foul enough just by challenging shots. He’s figuring it out too. What he tried to do was the right thing. He was just late doing it.”

The second half, however, Embiid stayed on the floor and was a force, hitting all five of his field goal attempts and 6 of 8 free throws.

“I wanted it bad,” Embiid said. “I wanted to play.”

It showed. And with one impressive display of footwork — the Dream Shake — the buzz about ceilings and potential showed up again, too.

“We need to play him all the time. But more he plays, the less time he’s going to spend in Lawrence,” Self joked.

“I’m not sure it’s a real wise decision for me to do this, but he’s got to play. Because he’s got so much talent he’s going to continue to get better and better. He just needs opportunities.”